Kitchen Decision #2: Sinks

To dry or to drip-dry–that is the question I was faced with when deciding what sink to get for our new-to-us kitchen. You see, we were replacing this gargantuan:

A double stainless-steel sink that is 43″ wide and 16″ long! Trust me, that is huge in the world of sinks. So why are we replacing it? Well, for a few reasons:

It’s not very deep (the left side is only 7″ deep and the right is only 4″);

It’s a drop-in sink, and with the new counter tops coming (more on those here), I want an undermount sink for that seamless look;

We don’t actually use two sinks–the large one on the right basically has turned into a drying rack for us, and we’ve never actually used it as a sink; and

The garbage disposal (which is broken anyways) is on the right sink, which is a further aggravation since it would be much more appreciated on the left sink.

So with all that being said, we decided to ditch the sink. And so the search began for a new sink. Now, we definitely liked not having a drying rack on the counter, so I initially thought I wanted a sink with a built-in drainboard. Turns out these are really popular in Europe, but kind of hard to find (for a reasonable price anyways) here in the States. However, I did manage to find a few that I liked:

Beautiful, right? That’s the Whitehaus WHNCM4019 for ~$580-$1,200 (quick sidenote: you have to do research when shopping online–I found this sink for $1,200 herebut I also found the same exact sink for ~$580 here). It’s gorgeous and all, but it’s also a drop-in, so luckily for Mr. B, I crossed it off my list (I’m pretty sure the price would have been a no go anyways).

Then, there was the Blanco Precision 16″ undermount sink (model 516215). Again, gorgeous. But at ~$1,400 from Amazon, well, you’ve just got to be kidding. I mean, maybe when we win the lottery and build our dream home? I won’t hold my breath.

On the cheaper end of things, that’s the Boholmen sink from Ikea at ~$150. Ikea actually had a few options (seen here), but all were drop-in sinks. So I pretty quickly ruled those out.

And the last one I could find was the Oliveri 882-U sold at Amazon for ~$700. This one was at least an undermount, but I wasn’t digging the curves. In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m kind of into the more streamlined, modern look of things.

So my quest for an integrated drainboard seemed to have failed. BUT, then I saw this inspiration image from here:

And hallelujah! Problem solved, right? We’ll just get our counter top fabricators to carve in a drainboard. Wrong. Apparently none of the 6+ countertop places I went to have ever seen or done anything like that. I love western NY and all, but come on! Open a design mag once in a while, right? Oh well. In the end, I decided we could probably just get something like this to hang on our sink:

Yep, a stainless steel drain basket for less than $20 (from here). Nothing like going the cheap, practical route when the high-end stuff fails ya’, huh? And, that meant that we could get an even bigger sink to work with since we wouldn’t have to worry about the footprint including a drainboard–you see, I want a gargantuan sink. I want our baby to bathe in it, I want our monster pots and pans to fit in it, and I want it to be a statement piece.

I’ll spare you the details of the rest of my quest, but maybe just some pictures (all of them are linked to more details on each):

Oh, but before we get to the pictures–one more thing. I wanted an offset drain to one side–that way, when we have the rack in, it’s not covering up the drain. And, from all my research, it sounds like a large, single sink with an offset corner drain was just the best overall choice. Again, maybe not best for everyone, but best for us, and well–this blog is about us, not everyone.

That last one was definitely my favorite btw. Of course, the $900 price tag wasn’t thrilling me.

It can be mounted either as a drop-in or as an undermount (obviously we’re going to mount it as an undermount);

It’s made from a granite composite, and all of the reviews were great–it doesn’t scratch, wears well, and doesn’t have that tinny sound that stainless can sometimes have when you drop stuff in it;

The drain was offset to the right corner;

The sink was BIG–30.5″ x 16″ with a depth of 9.5″ (which would really be over 10″ since it was going to be undermounted); and

The price was right–while most of the other sinks were $500+, I found this Blanco online for only $389.35 (from faucetdirect.com). Of course, I didn’t stop there. I also used eBates and Retailmenot.com (more on those sites here) to save an additional $26.87, so my sink only ended up costing me $362.48! Not bad considering that the local Lowe’s was charging $500+ for the exact same sink!

And guess what–it just arrived and it’s beautiful!

Okay, so it has some Styrofoam all over it, but other than that it looks amazing. And just to give you some scale of how big it is–here it is with a regular carry-on suitcase inside of it:

And with room to spare!!! Oh happy day. And even with being that big, it’s still going to take up a smaller footprint than our old sink, but boy oh boy is it going to be so much more functional! Can you tell I’m excited?!?!

So what do you think? Do you like the direction we’re going? Or totally hate it? Up next–faucets! I know, you’re riveted I’m sure.

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One Response to Kitchen Decision #2: Sinks

Annnnnnd….you forgot how PERFECT it is for bathing a BABY!!! Yes, I’m an excited auntie… Oh, and about the fabricated dish drain… tried to get that put in last week during countertop fabrication and it was a big “Whaaa?” from anyone we talked to. Did I tell you we had a little kitchen fire last month?? NEVER, EVER (did I say NEVER?!) buy ANY type of Viking product. Wall oven caught fire on cleaning mode (yes it was installed properly). I had complained to them about heat concerns 2x previously only to be met with terrible customer service. Since the oven was 5 years old, they refused to do anything!! We would have lost the entire house if we had left it running. Now, our FABULOUS home insurance (Farmers) is going to go after them, meanwhile, generously and meticulously covering everything. Phew. Ok, stepping off soapbox now. Just don’t buy Viking. xoxox E